Introduction
If someone should ask you what is one thing that you can think of to thank Jesus for this morning? What would be your answer? Well for me, I want to thank Jesus for always being with me from my earliest existence until this present moment, if it were not for Him, I know that I would not be here today. I once lived a life in which I was too mean to live and not fit to die—but Christ saved me, and I thank Him for that.
In fact, there are so many things I can thank Him for until there is not enough time or space for me to do so in this setting. However, the number one reason I thank Him is because He died for me on Calvary’s cross. I thank Him because His Name is above all other Names; I thank Him for reaching way down in order to lift me up! I actually was “…sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shores” I know you have your reasons for thanking Him, and you should thank Him.
But should you give thanks for the good things of life only, or should you also give thanks for the bad? Paul said, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong.” In other words, ‘…I am strong’ because I totally rely on the God’s strength. The Bible has a lot to say when it comes to giving thanks. And here in our text, is the story of the ten lepers who were all healed by Jesus but only one came back, and he said, “I just want to say thank you Lord.” (emphasis mine)
It boggles my mind, to see so many people blessed with wonderful jobs, live in wonderful homes, drive wonderful cars, marries a wonderful spouse, raise wonderful children, enjoy wonderful week-ends, everything they have is wonderful—but not one time do they ever take the time to tell the Lord, thank you. On Sunday morning you will find them at the golf course or at some expensive café enjoying a Sunday brunch. It bothers me, I know it shouldn’t bother me but I confess, it does.
When the Lord has done so much for them or rather He allowed them to acquire so much, and they just can’t take a moment, take a little time out just to say thank you—that bothers me. Why does this bother me? It bothers me because an ungrateful heart can lead us to away from God, if we are not away from Him already. So many times we look to Jesus for help and He comes through. Once He comes through, some of us act as if nothing ever happened.
I expect the world to be ungrateful but not those of us who are Christians. Ungrateful Christians seem to miss what the Bible teaches on how having a thankful heart, and praise/worship are connected, and they usually don’t enter into the praise and worship service in the proper manner, instead they are unhappy about the temperature, songs, volume, leader, the offering, etc. It seems that an oxymoron would be “ungrateful Christian”. They do not “…enter His house with praise…” the story is told about a pastor who remodeled the doors of his church, which led to the sanctuary.
Initially, the doors were the standard size 6’ 8” but he had the contractor lower the height of the doors to 5’ 6”. A curious staff member asked the pastor why would he do such a thing? And the pastor answered, this seems to be the only way I can get some of my members to humble themselves when they enter the church house—they are now forced to bow when they enter God’s sanctuary. Hopefully we will never have to go such methods but the point is we need to always humble ourselves and be grateful before the Lord.
In our text, Jesus heals ten men with leprosy. But the story does not end with the healing. One of the ten comes back to thank Jesus for what He has done for him. In this story we will learn at least three different lessons from the ten lepers about the difference between ungrateful people and grateful people.
1. The Lesson On Need
These ten lepers had a great need; they were all very desperate men because they all had the disease known as leprosy, which was the most feared disease of their time. Leprosy is still in the world today but through great medical advancements there are now treatments available. However, during this time there was absolutely no cure. Those who contracted this particular disease were placed in what was called a “Lepers colony” some colonies were located on mountains or in remote locations in order to ensure quarantine, some on main roads, where donations would be made for their upkeep.
They were isolated from the public and for a very good reason. Leprosy is a very infectious disease, and for these ten men the disease they had went untreated because again there was no treatment—this disease attacked the nerves that supplied the feelings to the hands, feet, eyes, and parts of the face. Their entire life was defined by their disease, they no longer had their own individual names, they were all known simply as ‘lepers.’ And so you can see that these ten brothers had a great need. Here Luke reminds us that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. At that time, people, including Jesus’ disciples, thought that Jesus was about to establish his messianic kingdom on earth and be crowned as the king. That was what people wanted Jesus to do. But God’s will for Jesus was different. God’s will for Jesus was to die on the cross as the ransom sacrifice for the sin of the world. Though obeying God’s will meant his suffering and death on the cross, Jesus had made a firm decision to obey God's will and definitely not man’s.
Jesus began His journey toward Jerusalem from Galilee and now He is entering into Samaria. At this time Jews and Samaritans did not associate with one another. It was because Jews despised the Samaritans. However, Jesus entered into a certain village—coming from a long journey and the lepers had no idea where He was going, He may have been heading for another matter of great importance but these lepers could not care less, the only thing they knew was that they needed Jesus and they needed Him right now.
They were desperate, when we fully develop a sense of
desperation nothing else really matters, we want our need or
needs addressed right then and there. For these lepers it was indeed a matter of life and death, as far as they were concerned it would have been a sure death sentence if Jesus should simply pass them on by. Here in the year 2013, this same great need for Jesus is essential for each and everyone for us. God sent Jesus because He loves us. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16.
Somehow these lepers knew that Jesus was their only Answer. They were desperate, and they were also humble—they “stood afar off.” They knew what the law concerning their condition said about standing at least six feet away from the normal people, and they respected the law. Can you even imagine being legally forbidden to come close to anyone?
Even your husband or your wife? Six feet away from your
children, and if you have any friends left you would have to stand six feet away from them as well? Do you feel sometimes that people treat you like a leper? Do you feel mistreated? Overlooked or looked down upon? Do what these leper did. Cry out to God and tell Him all about your troubles, He already knows about your needs and He will see you through. These ten cried out to the Lord, and asked Him to “…have mercy on them.”
2. The Lesson on Gratitude
In 2 Corinthians 9: 15 we read, “Thanks be to God for His Gift that is too wonderful to describe.” What is this …Gift that is too wonderful to describe? It is the Gift of His own Son there is no greater Gift to have ever been given in the history of mankind. Jesus saw the ten lepers, and He said to them, “…Go show yourselves to the priests.” Right then and there He had cured all ten of them.
I wish the story would have ended right there, I wish that I could say that all came back to show their gratefulness. If they did so I believe that this story would have still been included in our Bible. But this story is representative of how the world is today. God blesses each and every one of us. He allows the sun to shine on each and every one of us, He allows the rain to fall on us all, He provides the same resources we all need believers and non-believers to survive one day after the other, and He keeps each and every one of us from potential catastrophic dangers of the universe “It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not” -Lamentations 3: 22. Yet only a few of us on this earth are grateful to Him. Only a few even acknowledge His presence or existence.
I often wondered about why the world is so ungrateful to God? And maybe it is because we think life should be perfect. Maybe we think that we are big enough and powerful enough to handle all of life’s matters on our own. Maybe we think that life is unfair and so we pout and moan about of the unfairness of it all. It could be a million reasons as to why this world is so ungrateful, but if we could only stop for a moment and consider the faithfulness of God maybe some this ungratefulness would subside. Of the ten lepers, only one a Samaritan leper appears to be grateful and nothing else is said about the other nine. We don’t know what happened to them, other than Jesus cured them and didn’t take the time to come back to simply say ‘thank you.’ What a sad testimony, to have Jesus Himself cure you of a death sentence and not have the time to express your gratefulness and your thankfulness.
3. The Lesson on Thankfulness
Now I know what you may be thinking, isn’t being grateful and being thankful the same thing? Not quite, they are both feelings but they are little bit different, gratitude is the feeling of being grateful or thankful. Thankfulness is the expressing of your gratitude, it is possible to be grateful and not express it. There is a need to be grateful, but more importantly there is a need to express just how grateful you are. I can be a gentleman and open the door for a lady, she may even be very grateful that I opened the door for her, but if she doesn’t at least say ‘thank you’ I will never know that she was grateful and possibly walk away with the wrong thought. When we were children our parents often taught us to say thank you when someone did something nice for us. It is a golden rule in some homes across America—just say ‘thank you.’ Some of us have been taught early in life that gratitude is the best attitude, and yet some of us still have not been taught this simple godly behavior. And when we reach a certain age the adage, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” almost seems to be true.
But when we think of the goodness, the grace and mercy of God being thankful ought to be easy to do. "As they went to show themselves to the priest, they were made clean." With my mind’s eye, I can see all ten on them looking at their hands, their feet, and their entire body that was once leprous but because of what Jesus done for them is no longer. I can even see the smiles on every one of their faces. I can see the amazement that they had, and rightly so. Perhaps they had concerns for their families—after all, it may have been that they hadn’t seen them in a long time.
This concern possibly caused a few of the nine to run straight home, anxious to embrace their wives and the children and even the pet dog once again. And maybe a few of the other former nine ran straight to city, to hit the night clubs and beer joints in order to try and make up for all the lost time that was spent in the leper’s colony. But not so with the Samaritan, when the Samaritan leper comes back he is praising God with a loud voice.
Conclusion
He is praising God with a loud voice because he is thankful! He came back to say ‘thank you’ while other nine went about their business. The overall lesson in this story is the fact that Christ expects us to return to Him continually, He expects for us to return to Him both in season and out. When we are caught up in our very own leper’s colony. When people around us are overlooking us, rejecting us, and treating us like an outcast, sometimes even in the very church we attend. When we are situated in one place seemingly unable to make any noticeable progress. Talked about, despised and dejected. That’s right, when we are in our own leper’s colony of life, surrounded by all our haters and distracters—who abuse our love, manipulate us, attack our character and our integrity, and tell whole lot of lies on us. What will you do when Christ comes along to deliver you? If you cry out to Him—He will along and release us from the leper’s colony, what will you do when that time comes. He may not come when you want Him to, but when He does come it will be right on time.
What are you going to do afterwards? Are you going to move on and act as if nothing ever happened? Or are you going to thank Him? Or you simply going to say in a shallow, quiet voice ‘much obliged’ or will you use your lungs to ‘glorify God’ with a loud voice? The Psalmist said, “When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord; he brought me into a spacious place. The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? The Lord is with me; he is my helper. I look in triumph on my enemies” –Psalm 18: 5 – 7. Or you going to sing “I love the Lord, He heard my cry and pitied my every groan—as long as I live and trouble rises, I’ll hasten to His throne.”
So much of life is not about our circumstances. It's about the attitude that we bring to them; if God has blessed you I invite you to share it with others today. Your gratitude is the best attitude you possibly have even in this sin cursed world of ours. Amen.
